Pacific Journalism Review will celebrate 20 years of publication in November. A special anniversary conference is being planned for November 27/29 at AUT University.

A special anniversary edition will then be published as a book in May 2015. The editors will draw on the best papers presented at the conference for the next edition of PJR. A feature of the conference papers will be political journalism related to asylum seekers and the “Pacific solution”; the “return of democracy” elections in Fiji in September; and the changing political and mediascape in the Pacific and important elections in Indonesia (implications for West Papua), New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu.

Papers related to the history of newspapers and publications in the Pacific region will also be welcome. The full call for papers and additional paper themes are on the PJR website: www.pjreview.info

• Political journalists among speakers include Republika magazine chief editor Ricardo Morris of Fiji and Television New Zealand Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver.

• Documentary maker and investigator Jim Marbrook, who has been filming the New Caledonian nickel mine and environmental disaster of Cap Bocage. His new film supported by the PMC will be screened at the conference. Film synopsis below.

• Ces Oreña-Drilon, an award-winning Filipino television journalist once kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf rebels. She also had death threats over her investigation about the 2009 Ampatuan massacre. Her visit is being sponsored by the Asia New Zealand Foundation.

• Alister Barry, investigative and social documentary maker and director of the film Hot Air, a devastating critique of climate change politics and the failure of NZ politicians and media to address one of the critical issues of our times. Barry is the director of Niuklia Fri Pasifik, Wildcat, Islands of the Empire and Somebody Else’s Country.

• Dr Lee Duffield is documenting the research history of PJR and Sasya Wreksono will screen her short film on the 20-year ‘life’ of PJR.

• Media laws and political journalism in Fiji
• Eight years in Fiji without democracy
• Climate change and political journalism
• Asylum seekers and the ‘Pacific solution’
• Decolonisation and the referendum vote in New Caledonia
• Political media and the elections in the Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu
• The ballot box in Indonesia - how has media freedom fared?
• Censorship and free expression in the media
• Media freedom in Timor-Leste
• Investigative journalism in the Asia-Pacific region
• Popular politics, leadership and corruption
• The history of newspapers and publications in the Pacific
• Reflections on the history of PJR

Cap Bocage centres on Florent Eurisouké's struggle to deal with a huge mudslide at a nickel mine in New Caledonia. He is the charismatic and sometimes divisive leader of tribal environmental organisation Mèè Rhaari. During the fight for clean-up, Florent’s actions cause many to question the fundamental assumptions underlying mining exploitation by non-Kanak companies.

Irrepressible, engaging and sometimes infuriating, Florent butts heads with locals and the heads of the mining company. Underpinning his struggle is the inescapable fact that New Caledonia is still a French territory, deeply divided on the question of independence. - Filmmaker Jim Marbrook